Just last week, my life was taken over by a most unexpected evil called EverQuest II.

It is most unexpected because I never like revisiting an MMORPG after quitting. Picking up where you left off is tedious. I prefer to play new games all the time.

And EverQuest II is most evil because it lured me back not just once but twice.

I first started the game in Feb 2005. Quit after a year due to excessive guild politics.

Returned in Dec 2006 because they introduced Faes, which are too cute to resist. Quit after a few months, can’t remember why.

Now, in Mar 2010, all my friends have suddenly gone back into the game one by one. These are the very friends I first met in the same game in 2005, who have become my best friends over the years as we moved together from activity to activity.

I was very reluctant to restart the game, especially after three years of absence. Too many changes would have happened to the game, which would throw me off. Plus I didn’t want to get addicted to an MMORPG again.

But then, EQ2 started to dominate conversations in Plurk and gatherings (dinners and stuff) with my friends, so I had two choices: Return to EQ2 or be hopelessly clueless.

I saw returning to EQ2 as being the lesser of two evils, despite EQ2 already being the evil incarnate.

So, after three years of being a lost soul, I am an MMORPG player once again. (I say lost soul because although I really appreciated being not addicted to a game, I always felt incomplete without one.)

I logged into the game last week and was completely useless. I’d forgotten how to do everything. After spending an hour staring at the screen dumbly, wondering where to start, I decided to create yet another new character to learn the game from scratch again.

I made an evil Fae (known as Arasai) this time, but in the same colour combination as my first because I still think blue and white looks best.

Sheyli the Arasai:

Sheyla the Fae:

The evil infiltrated my soul very quickly. The first night I logged in, I played overnight until 8:30 in the morning.

It has been a downhill battle since. EQ2 is really the ultimate MMORPG for me. I enjoyed WOW but was never so entranced. Maybe it helps that all my friends are in the game with me and it’s like we have come full circle and reliving all fun we had a long time ago.

And it’s fun to talk about EQ2 when we meet in real life.

So, while EQ2 has hold of my life, everything takes a back seat. Which is really bad, but I’m trying very hard to at least complete my most important tasks daily, one of which is to blog. Which is what I’m doing now. =P

Even as I’m blogging, I have EQ2 open on my other monitor so I can drive myself crazy.

Also, this week, I’m getting some outside air every evening attending a voice masterclass workshop with renowned voice coach Bill Pepper, who coached Russell Crowe and Sam Worthington, among other celebs. Have gone for two sessions so far and it’s been cool!

So that kinda balances my life a bit, keeping me away from total addiction.

But now I’m thinking of getting a laptop so I can play EQ2 if I happen to be stuck outside with time to kill.

YES IT’S THAT BAD.

And it’s not just me. Everyone in Club Morte is addicted. =P

My favourite thing about Disneyland is that they allow us to take photos everywhere. And I do mean everywhere, even in the shops!

That’s so awesome. I love Disney shops. I think I spent 50% of my time in Disneyland shopping!

I also love that the Disney staff are all so friendly and polite. It’s like every guest is made to feel very loved and special!

Minou told me that the last time she visited Hong Kong Disneyland, she spent like S$400 in the Disney shops alone. I can believe her when I see it for myself! There’s so much awesome, cute stuff to gawk at and buy. Even the Goonfather enjoyed shopping in there! Hehe.

This time round, our damage is about S$500. EACH. Well, me and Minou. The Goonfather and Elyxia spent less.

My purchases:

Even after all these, I still feel like there’s so much more I need to buy!

It was actually fortunate that I fell sick and was bedridden for half my trip in Disneyland. If not, I would have ended up buying a lot more. Haha. Most of them will be given away as gifts, though.

Here’s a closer look at some of the cuter stuff:

This chio watch grabbed us right away. Three of us girls ended up buying the same watch! Haha. It comes in a pretty tin box.

Pretty cookie tins. Inside are pink heart-shaped cookies!!

Bought two of these mini tiaras for my little nieces:

Erm… dim sum key chains:

I have no idea what I’m gonna do with them. Just couldn’t resist them. :(

Love love love this necklace:

Elyxia also bought one! It’s soooo cute~!

Pretty pin:

A biggish Stitch keychain/charm/dangly thing:

Has a pair of angel wings behind him!! AWww.

Mickey Mouse padlock and key!

Bought this Stitch hair tie on my first day there and tied my hair with it the next day! =P

Even though it didn’t really match my outfit cos my skin and socks were black and pink.

Mickey Mouse ice cream:

Totally sweet.

Mickey Mouse key danglies:

And and and…! My favourite favourite thing from Disneyland… Scrump!

I wasn’t even a Scrump fan until I saw this. Just love this one cos of the raggedy woolly feel of it. The Goonfather bought it for me! =D

There are basically Disney stores everywhere (in the Disney hotels and in Disneyland itself), even at Hong Kong International Airport, so I was shopping all the way till we went home. Haha.

Besides the shopping, I also love eating at the restaurants.

At Disney’s Hollywood Hotel is Chef Mickey, which serves an enormous buffet dinner that has all kinds of cuisines — Western, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, I don’t remember what else!

Much of the decor has Mickey shapes, which was a delight to find!

A lot of the food is Mickey shaped, too. Mostly the desserts!

Before I even started eating, I was taking photographs of all the Mickey desserts cos they looked so appealing!

Wanted to photograph this before more slices got taken out:

Mickey croutons in soup:

Oh, and does the dinner plate remind you of anything?

There’s also an ice-cream corner:

Which my friends had a lot of fun with while I was busy eating.

They filled the cone up with M&Ms first. O_o

And then didn’t do a very good job of shaping the ice-cream. :P

And then the Goonfather stuck a Mickey crouton on it. -_-”

And this is how four people share an ice-cream cone:

Haha. Unearthed the treasures inside:

Dinner was fabulous! Most items were delicious and by the time I was full, there were still many dishes I wanted to try but had no more room to try. Argh.

Okay, too many photos in this entry already. More coming up in Part 3! =P

Since Disneyland opened in Hong Kong years ago, I’d wanted to check it out but never did because Hong Kong to me always meant Shopping. If I fly all the way there, I gotta get my money’s worth of shopping for the short time that I can afford to stay there, right?

So, of course, I am immensely grateful to Hong Kong Disneyland for hosting last weekend’s trip for me and my friends. I can now say that I have visited this magical theme park!

And I can now also say that, having visited it, I would willingly visit it again at the expense of shopping!

Actually, it’s possible to do both. I just discovered that there’s a factory outlet mall just 10 minutes away from Hong Kong Disneyland. It’s called CityGate and has so many brands — at factory outlet prices!!! — that you could literally shop till you drop! Will talk about CityGate in another blog.

I really love Disneyland! The magic starts even before you step into the park.

A Mickey Mouse train takes visitors from the Sunny Bay train station in the Hong Kong Subway, right to Disneyland park.

Of course, if you’ve just flown into Hong Kong International Airport, you don’t need to take the train. Disneyland is just a short cab ride away. About 10 minutes or so, I reckon.

But I like the train. It’s got plush seats and bronze Disney characters in every carriage!

At the Disneyland train station, shuttles run every 10 minutes to take us to our hotels. (The shuttle ride is only a few minutes.)

You can stay at Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel or Disney’s Hollywood hotel. I recommend the first one cos it’s bigger, has more amenities and is more magical cos it’s Victorian themed! (The other one is 60s glamour theme)

More about the hotels later. Time for lunch!

We were hosted at Crystal Lotus, a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. The menu made us look forward to the food, especially the “special” ones.

Heheh! So cute!

The food in Crystal Lotus is quite excellent, so it’s not all novelty. We were served “normal” food, too, but I so enjoyed eating Disney character food!

Okay, and now… photos of Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, the one we stayed in.

Enchanted Garden, my favourite restaurant in the hotel:

More about the restaurant in another post.

Here’s the cool Princess Room, where little girls can go to be transformed into little princesses:

They get to choose which Disney princess they want to be, and then they get dressed and made up and they get to keep the dress!

It’s really delightful, because you can see cute little princesses walking around the hotel and in Disneyland park all day.

Here’s Cinderella signing an autograph for a little Alice!

And posing for photographs. There’s a long queue of people waiting to take photos with Cinderella.

And Alice in Wonderland!

I’m watching Alice in Wonderland in 3D today! =D

Our guide told us that there are hidden Mickeys all over the hotel. Can you spot the one in the following picture?

We would spend the next two days looking out for hidden Mickeys, lol. For example, on the floor:

Our guide was very cute! She’d point Mickey out to us and then urge us not to step on him!

The gardens outside the hotel:

We took a tour of the Kingdom Suite, the most expensive room in the hotel. (Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay in it.) It’s so awesome, it has a separate vanity table and a TV in the bathroom! In fact, it has two bathrooms!!

Our room:

It’s a seaview room that’s catered for up to 3.5 people.

Why did I say 3.5 people?

Check this out… hehe:

So cute right! Have you ever seen a hotel that provides baby bath robes and slippers?!!

Well, four of us shared the room anyway, and it’s very comfortable.

Obligatory bathtub photo!

Well, okay, it’s not really obligatory. I was just so excited and happy with everything that I thought a bath tub photo would be apt.

AND WE HAVEN’T EVEN STARTED ON THE THEME PARK YET!!

The hotel itself is already so full of surprises I feel it’d be a REALLY GREAT IDEA to stay in a Disney hotel if you’re visiting Disneyland, in order to complete the experience!

I want to visit again and stay in the same hotel!

Okay, Part 1 of Hong Kong Disneyland post is done. Please come back again for Part 2 (and maybe 3 and 4). =P

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How do you make an ordinary day of window shopping fun?

You bring a camera and a crazy friend!

Introducing: Nanny Wen (more commonly known as Davienne), my partner-in-crime for crazy adventures!

I suppose she doesn’t need an introduction; you all know her already. What she really needs is a slap because she’s always losing things, but that’s for another discussion.

Today, we shall discuss having fun! Specifically, having fun at the Cathay, a very fun place to be at!

(You know it’s reeeeally fun because I used the word three times in one breath!)

First, a stopover at Ben&Jerry’s for some energy food.

Nom nom nom…

I like how Ben&Jerry’s has live performances. No one was performing when we were there cos I think they only have it at night, so I asked the Ben&Jerry’s staff for permission to fool around with the stage equipment and take photos!

Since yonks ago, the Cathay has had the reputation of being a cinema pioneer. Well, it still is, of course, but it is also a shopping mall today, and one with lots of cool shops!

For example, I was immediately attracted to this awesome shop called forest n trees.

It has designer knick-knacks (great for gifting, I think) and a little nail salon right behind this impressive wall that makes up half the shopfront.

I didn’t take photos of the salon cos there were customers having their nails done and I think it’s not polite to take photos of people when they’re having their nails done, lol.

So, Wen and I, after gawking at the merchandise, posed for a self-timered shot. I had to prop my camera on the arm of that red sofa you see in the above picture!

I suppose the angle is a bit weird but you can’t have too perfect shots when you’re attempting to snap and be in your own photos at the same time.

I gave Wen a tough job after this: Photographing me in a dance studio!

It’s tough because there are mirrors all over the place and the photographer has to avoid having his/her own reflection caught. Haha.

Well, I think she did a decent job, anyway.

We had popped by at Jitterbugs for a visit. It’s such a cool, glam-looking place. Makes me wanna sign up for classes!

I’m thinking pole dancing. I really want to learn that! I know some people have bad impressions of it. But, hey, it’s a dance, an artistic expression, a form of exercise. It’s what you do with it that should matter, and not what has been done with it. Fire has killed people so are you going to say that fire is bad?

Moving on!

Nanny Wen fancies herself as some kind of journalistic photographer so she was, like, trying to take “behind-the-scenes” photos of me walking and stuff. Haha.

LOL.

That’s why I enjoy hanging out with her. She does the cutest things!

I dragged her next to Black Alice, located in a more obscure area on the 4th floor of the Cathay. It’s a Lolita shop. My favourite kind of fashion!

A photo with the shop assistant, who was very friendly and accommodating.

She urged me to try on some of the dresses and take some photos but I had to decline because I was having a bad hair day and felt it wouldn’t do justice to the Lolita clothes.

But we tried on some head bands!

It was quite fun. I didn’t want to leave the shop!

But we had to leave eventually because I wanted to get some gaming done at E2MAX.

E2MAX was fun because Nanny Wen is a gamer like me. At E2MAX, you can enjoy PC and console gaming, as well as UFO catchers!

Gazing yearningly at giant Stitch:

Nanny Wen posing instead of playing. She’s very good at dropping whatever she’s doing to smile at the camera:

There’s also a bar that serves refreshments, and a cosy curtained corner for a bit of privacy.

I tried to do another self-timered shot with Wen, propping my camera on the TV.

At the last minute, I saw from the reflection on the TV that she had covered her face with a cushion, which made me laugh.

So I had to run off to set the timer again and, this time, I forcibly removed the cushion from her hands, the result of which is her pouty face.

Silly girl!

Anyway, that’s a lot of fun for one day!

If you find yourself having nothing to do one day, why not grab some friends and head down to the Cathay for some mad fun? (If you want to act crazy and take photos in people’s shops, please ask for permission first.)

You can plan your itinerary for the day by checking out the Cathay website, which shows you what shops there are and what promotions or events are on.

The shops are conveniently labelled by level or by category (Fashion & Beauty, Food & Beverage, Lifestyle, Entertainment & Leisure, Services and Others).

As you can see, quite a lot of stuff can be done there. Two events coming up soon!

As is trendy nowadays, the Cathay is now on Facebook! Join as a fan to receive the latest updates on promotions and events, as well as take part in mini contests.

We stayed there till late at night, and then Nanny Wen had to go back to the office to work. CRAZY GIRL.

Guess who’s that posing crazily in front of the building?

No prizes for guessing correctly. But go join The Cathay Facebook Fan Page and you might win something in the next contest! =)

Hong Kong Disneyland Favourite Moments #4

I think Goofy is the cutest! :)

(More Disney characters in full post coming up soonish…)